I’ve been making mental notes of all the things I’ve done wrong on my first custom project and I want you to learn from my mistakes. Write these down, memorize them, print them and tape them on your wall because they are true and they will happen to you. »7/23/15 4:11pm 7/23/15 4:11pm

Few things are more cathartic than searching the word "project" on Craigslist at 1 AM. That's how I found this spectacular pair of electric "Droid" wheelchairs that are just begging to be used for some kind of hoontastic debauchery. And they're cheap.»7/26/14 10:34am 7/26/14 10:34am

A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardized the entire project. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the hundreds of millions of dollars it was going to take to make… »1/31/12 3:15pm 1/31/12 3:15pm

When I bought the car, it was with the understanding that at some murky time in the recent past, the engine had been rebuilt to some unknown degree. I couldn't make up my mind as to whether this was a good or bad thing. I'd rather have an engine untouched than rebuilt by newbs (even though I consider myself a newb).… »12/07/07 1:45pm 12/07/07 1:45pm

This is just going to be a set of pictures with the trunk lid on. There are no pictures of the trunk-lid-putting-on process. There are no pictures of the process because it involved a Friday night, a case of Bud, me stubbing my toe on the trunk lid as it leaned against the wall, and me deciding to man up and put it on… »12/05/07 1:15pm 12/05/07 1:15pm

Using bondo is something nobody likes to have to do. The stuff is an admittance in your failure of metalsmithing mastery. Still, Bondo is no wussy taskmaster on it's own. It requires a steady hand and a sense of surface space, gradient approximation, and speed - or more appropriately, the sense of balance between… »12/03/07 10:00am 12/03/07 10:00am

Sometimes, picking up a stupid, easy, completely unimportant element of the project and doing it for the fun of it helps keep the light at the end of the tunnel burning. Here are the pictures from the cleaning, priming, and painting of the original and still functional emergency jack. Looks pretty good all cleaned up,… »11/19/07 1:30pm 11/19/07 1:30pm

Nothing says I love you like a puddle of gasoline on the floor in the morning. A couple of days after fiddling with the inner fender business mentioned earlier, I walked into the garage to the overwhelming smell of dino juice emanating from a spot directly under the inner fender. That'll show me. Taking the panel back… »11/07/07 12:30pm 11/07/07 12:30pm